I am to marketing what Graham Norton is to Theoretical Physics. However I did manage to go along to an all-day workshop on the subject. The thesis of the person giving the seminar was that actually people buy things to solve a problem they have rather than for any benefit or constellation of benefits. They go into Tescos on the way home from work not because they think of the benefits of getting a nutritious ready-prepared meal but because they have a problem of getting food for themselves, of getting rid of hunger.
The tricky thing is to market a product without too much negativity. It seems an iron rule of advertising that adverts mustn't actually directly allude to the problem they are going to solve, but must subtly hint at the nature of the problem. In my youth there was a famous ad for some kind of insurance-based saving scheme which showed (supposedly) the same man over a series of decades worrying more and more about not having taken out that life policy when he was in his 20's and it was cheap.
It is not an original thought that men buy expensive cars to create the illusion of wealth. I had always assumed that Posches were bought by very rich people who had the sums required for purchase in their wallet, but it seems that a vast proportion of dealer-bought cars are purchased on expensive credit.
What is the primary motivation - to avoid the shame of being though unsuccessful in business, or to create the positive impression of great wealth?
